St Mary's Churchyard, Ealing

Ealing originated as a Saxon settlement, and was part of the Manor of Fulham owned by Bishop of London, mentioned in C12th as part of his estate. At that time Ealing parish extended from the River Brent in the north to the Thames, and took in Brentford. There was a church in the centre of the old village since at least 1130, the core of the present building dating from 1735-40 after the old church finally collapsed in 1729. The steeple and tower had been demolished in c.1719 and from 1725 a timber building was being used in its place due to the dangerous state of the church. The medieval building had been damaged by Cromwell's army in the Civil War of 1642, and in a parliamentary survey of 1650 the structure was described as 'ruinated and lying open since the plundering'. Plans for a new church were instigated by the vestry in 1731 and it opened on Trinity Sunday 1740, having required an Act of Parliament to enable the vestry to raise the necessary funds from the ratepayers, and the accounts for the re-building were only completed in 1789. A number of monuments from the old church came to the new building, including that of Richard Amandesham dated c.1490.

Among the ruins of the old church were its abandoned old bells, one of which was stolen and converted into a punchbowl, used 'at the revels which took place at the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales' (Jones).

By the C18th Ealing had become fashionable and there were country mansions in the vicinity, such as Pitshanger Park (later becoming Walpole Park q.v.) on Ealing Green and houses on Castle Bar Hill, although the area remained agricultural well into the mid C19th. The church had an important role in the community and up until 1863 the Vestry and then the first Ealing Local Board had met at Cross House north of the church. Ealing Workhouse, which the church oversaw, used to be opposite the western entrance of the church.

The C18th church was remodelled in the 1860s when it was felt that the parish needed a grander building to reflect the change in status of the district. Ealing was now a town rather than a village and had grown in importance largely as a result of the arrival of the railway. Haven Green Station had opened in 1838 and by the 1870s and '80s Ealing had earned the sobriquet 'The Queen of the Suburbs'. Rather than demolish the Georgian church, it was instead transformed by architect S S Teulon, who enlarged and lavishly decorated the existing building, which was consecrated by Bishop Tait on 30 May 1866. It was referred to by Ealing Borough Surveyor Charles Jones as the 'conversion of a Georgian monstrosity into a Constantinopolitan basilica'. Further works were carried out in subsequent years, including extension of the vestry on the north side in 1887, rebuilding the organ in 1927, extensive interior refurbishment in the 1950s, a lounge added to the south in 1959 was later extended as The Polygon in 1978, and most recently major restoration of both exterior and interior has taken place from 1988-2003.

Among famous people commemorated in the church are Prime Minster Spencer Perceval (1762-1812), his nephew and son-in-law Home Secretary Spencer Horatio Walpole (1806-1898), and radical politician John Horne Tooke (1736-1812).

The church and its immediate churchyard are reached through a picturesque lych-gate with patterned slates and decorative ridge tiles, with the area at the front laid out as a garden with grave slabs and a number of chest tombs, and the area behind having numerous monuments. The graveyard is in two parts, separated by a footpath with a roughly triangular wooded area with a few tombstones to the east. 

The eastern churchyard closed to burials in 1854 by which time it was full, and by the late C20th had gradually become overgrown, with many of the gravestones and monuments in a state of disrepair and potentially dangerous to the hundreds of local people and children who passed through every week. As a result a project was set up by the Parochial Church Council of St Mary's Ealing in 2008 to renew the churchyard in order to open it up again to local people and for the interment of ashes of parishioners. Community consultation took place to determine priorities and options discussed included an educational resource, a place for quiet reflection, a Garden of Remembrance and a space to grow food. Fundraising gift days took place in the church together with grant applications and a scheme of works was drawn up. The vision for the project was to create: 'a place of peace, beauty and interest to the local community; a place in which a garden of remembrance could be created for the interment of ashes; a place which fosters biodiversity and local wildlife; a place to reconnect the churchyard with the interior of St Mary’s and develop a new outdoors space where children’s groups and community gatherings can spill outside onto the new plaza area from the Polygon; and a place to help urban people find a quiet attractive space for reflection and prayer.' The project took six years to implement and a Dedication and Opening Service was held on 21st September 2014 led by the Bishop of London Rt Revd Richard Chartres.

The Parochial Church Council of St Mary's Ealing was awarded funding for the churchyard renewal project through GLA’s Pocket Parks scheme, an initiative of the Mayor of London’s drive to create 100 Pocket Parks across London launched in 2013, with community grants of up to £20,000 available. The community fund was part of a £2m investment to bring 100 underused urban spaces back into use by March 2015. The scheme was delivered by Groundwork and enabled the creation of more than 100 pocket parks across 26 London boroughs, and ranged from community orchards to edible bus stops, the first to open being in Stockwell. A Pocket Park, defined as ‘a piece of land of up to 0.4 hectares, which may already be underdeveloped or derelict’, is considered to provide a small area of inviting public green space where people can relax, exercise, socialise and play, and can be natural and/or formal in character.

In 2016 the Pocket Parks initiative went England-wide with a £1.5m fund launched by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Community groups were invited to apply for grants up to £15,000, but applicants were also required to raise match funding from other sources. This led to 87 funded projects across the country, although no projects were in London. In 2018 the Pocket Parks Plus Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), eventually making £3.75m available when it was widened to include not only new pocket parks but also projects to refurbish existing parks or parts of parks. This led to funding 198 projects, which included 32 projects in London. The third funding round was launched by MHCLG in 2019 and on 3 March 2020, World Wildlife Day, the recipients of the £1.35m fund were announced. Of the 68 winners, 10 are in London. The government has now provided 352 grants to support community groups to create 146 new parks and give a vital boost to 206 derelict urban spaces in towns and cities in every region of the country.